Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has emphasized that the Akufo-Addo led administration’s persistent efforts to nib corruption in the bud is gradually paying off.
Making reference to the recently released global corruption reports, he said even though the country’s performance isn’t highly commendable, government is committed to following through the right path in fighting it.
Ghana was ranked 80 of 180 countries in the 2019 Corruption Perception Index with a score of 41, indicating no significant changes as compared to the previous year, 2018.
The Global Corruption Barometer also saw a steady decline in the rise of corruption in some key government institutions as the Police Service.
Following this, Mr Oppong Nkrumah noted that the country maintained its performance due to a number of interventions government put in place to fight corruption.
He said, “the government of Ghana pledges to continue with the recent efforts that have led to improved scores in the recently released corruption perception index and the global corruption barometer…From 2018 as the Akufo-Addo government started its work, we had begun a steady climb up from 40 to 41 (on the CPI data). And the year 2019, which is mostly a survey of the 2018 incident, you’ll find that we’re maintaining that score of 41. The administration believes that it is because of a number of things.”
Mr Oppong Nkrumah further argued that the fight against corruption is not totally lost because there has been a sharp decline in the number of people who hold opposing views, in comparison to previous years.
He noted, “There is still a lot of work but the numbers are speaking for themselves…for those who say corruption is increasing, in 2015, 76 per cent were of the view that corruption is increasing. According to the same survey they put out, by 2019 only 33 per cent hold that view. That’s a sharp drop of about 14 per cent. For those who thought corruption is reducing, only 8 per cent thought so in 2015, today 36 per cent seem to think so.”
“So when somebody goes around and say the fight against corruption has been totally lost, that is not the view as the data shows when the experts conduct the survey,” he emphasized.
The Information Minister was speaking at a press briefing in Accra, January 26, 2019.
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